climategate

Climategate, the phrase coined by James Delinpole on his Daily Telegraph blog, to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in November 2009.
In the video below, Edmund Jenks gives his take on those hacked emails and the response from the media and conspiracy theorists around the world. 

and The Huffungton Post has a well documented slideshow on The six most dubious claims about the supposed "Global warming hoax".

So...global warming as a result of increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, thus resulting in a warming of the Earth's atmosphere in a effect similar to that of a greenhouse, hence referred to as The Greenhouse Effect.  Have we, humans caused this increase in levels of CO2, thus setting our atmosphere a little out of kilter, or is this a natural occurance?

Well there's two camps...one, it is real, it is happening and has been occurring since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution....two, it just a natural cycle of warming and cooling.

 

Where do you lie? which side of the fence?  hmmm...you want evidence for global warming...here it is....

The Annual Mean Global Temperature increase, there is more info from RealClimate here 

Thermometer based temperature trends compiled by NOAA (The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) with data from NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) and CRU (UK Hadley Center Climate Research Unit), there is more information from the NOAA National Climate Data Center here

The Arctic Ice cap is thinning, there is more info from NASA here

The Arctic Ice cap is also shrinking, there is more info from NASA here

Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice anomaly, more info from NSIDC here

 There are interactive animations on the sea ice in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres here at Cryosphere.

Antarctica areas where melting occurred for a greater number of days (indicated in red) see additional information from NASA here

Antarctic changing temperatures since 1957, more information from NASA here

 Antarctica ice loss has speed up, see more information from NASA here

The first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record, see graphs and information from NASA GISS (Global Institute for Space Studies) 

Carbon dioxide does cause global warming, more information from Zfacts here

This research paper "Stabilizing climate requires near zero emissions" states" H. Damon Matthews and Ken Caldeira,, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, XXXX, 2008 Matthews and Caldeira state that

"International climate policies aimed at climate stabilization must reflect an understanding of the lasting effect of Greenhouse Gas emissions: year 2050 emissions targets currently being proposed are likely insufficient to avoid substantial future climate warming.  Stable global temperatures within the next several centuries can be achieved if CO2 emissions are reduced to nearly zero."

and a related article from the New Scientist

William R. Wilson has a superb series of posts titled "Evidence for global warming",

Finally, an interactive timeline from The New York Times on the Science and Politics of Climate Change

and if you haven't been bombared by enough facts, figures and graphs watch the Oscar winning documentary film "An Inconvenient truth" presented by the former United States Vice President Al Gore, the man who helped make climate change the number one dinner party conversation.
Convinced yet??
Now, what changes will you make to reduce your carbon footprint???